bump for a new study — big surprize it turns out natives did not clear the land and over extend themselves, as was often said, but the euros killed them off —
Popular theory claiming Easter Island’s population collapsed due to ‘ecocide’ is disproved
How modern archaeological research has rescued the reputation of the world’s most remote ancient civilisation
David Keys
Archaeology Correspondent
11 hours ago
New archaeological research has disproved one of the world’s most famous historical narratives - the environmental cautionary tale that claimed that the ancient civilisation of Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean collapsed because the islanders destroyed its ecosystem.
The research instead reveals how that civilisation thrived through tenacity and innovation until it was ultimately destroyed not by Indigenous Polynesian environmental catastrophe, but by European aggression, disease and exploitation.
more:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...6b0bd14c91ef24
For hundreds of years, the sculpting of giant ancestor stone statues was central to Easter Island’s civilization. The largest statue in this photograph is 9 meters tall and weighs 86 tons (Wikimedia Commons).